The museum plans to open a new outdoor exhibit on Oct. 18 featuring the foxes, with guided tours every hour. On weekends, the museum will have two tours a day.

Simba and Nala started out as pets in New York, were seized by the government and eventually given to the Lutz. The museum's decision to keep the animals was a difficult one. Some staffers thought they would be better off at a large zoo.

When the Lutz first announced its plan for the foxes, it received a letter demanding the foxes be freed.

``I had people tell me they should be released back on the Arctic tundra. They'd have been hors d'oeuvres for the first polar bear to come along,'' said Brad Case, animal curator at the Lutz.

When the museum decided the foxes would stay, it needed more than a year to construct a habitat. In the meantime, the foxes were hidden in a Vernon barn, where the museum hoped to keep them safe until they could be moved to the museum. Steven Robinson of West Hartford, who was working on his Eagle Scout award, painted an Arctic backdrop and made a cement den for the foxes at the museum.

Case said the animals look comfortable in their outdoor home.

``They're curious, alert, more friendly,'' Case said.

If the foxes show signs of stress the Lutz will find another home for them, Case said.

Richard Goodwin, executive director of the Lutz, said the new outdoor exhibit does not mean a shift in the Lutz's mission.

``We're a children's museum. We're in the business of providing educational opportunities to children,'' Goodwin said. ``We're not a petting zoo and we have no intention of doing that.''

All About Arctic Foxes

* What do you know about Arctic foxes? This true-or-false quiz will be part of the new Arctic fox exhibit at the Lutz Children's Museum in Manchester.